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Friday, 17 January 2014

The Indian Army
today made a pitch to expand the role of women in the field, seeking permanent
commission for them in streams such as Signals, EME and even inductions for the
first time ever in the Army Aviation Corps, the Regiment of Artillery and the
Corps of Engineers.

At present, women
officers are allowed permanent commission in the legal branch — Judge Advocate
General and education corps. Women also serve as short service commission
officers in Signals, Army Service Corps (ASC) and Ordnance. Till now, women had
no role in combating arms of the Army.

The fresh move
indicates that they will have, for the first time, a role in support arms such
as Artillery and Army Aviation. A source said since women pilots were already
flying helicopters and transport planes in the Indian Air Force, inducting
women in Army aviation would not be difficult.

The matter will
need an approval of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS). Adjutant General
of the Army Lt Gen Sanjeev Anand made a detailed presentation to the Ministry
of Defence today. This is the outcome of a study conducted by now-retired Lt
Gen Gyan Bhaushan who was the Army Commander of the Jaipur-based South Western
Command. The step means women would now get command portfolios and additional
avenues for permanent commission.

Army Chief General
Bikram Singh had, on January 13, ruled out any combat role for women officers
in near future but had said that they could be given “command roles” in combat
support arms and other avenues for permanent commission.

General Bikram
Singh said at present there was no scope of inducting women officers in the
Infantry and armoured regiments. “Given the kind of infrastructure we have, I
don't think we are prepared to make women part of infantry battalions... we
have to do it in a systematic manner as there are vagaries of the battlefield
and situations that have to be considered before we get them into the arena,”
he said.

Last year, the
Army had commissioned a study to measure the motivational and aspiration levels
of women officers in the force and also assess their level of toughness to
withstand hardships. The study also compared roles of its women officers with
their counterparts in the US and other countries and further looked at the
effect an increased role for women officers might have on their male
counterparts.

There are nearly
1,200 women officers in the Army, 1,100 in the IAF and 300 in the Navy since
induction started in 1992-93.

The Foreign Office
on Thursday said the recent statement issued by Indian army chief General
Bikram Singh was unfortunate and provocative.

Addressing the
weekly media briefing, FO spokeswoman Tasneem Aslam added that such remarks
could lead to deterioration of ties between the two countries.

Earlier this week,
General Singh was quoted by Indian media as saying that India was not bound to
follow the rules if Pakistan was up to breaking them.

“If rules are followed by our
neighbours, we follow them too. If rules are broken, we won’t sit on it, we
will break them too,” General Singh had said warning Pakistan against ceasefire
violations.

Aslam told reporters that
Pakistan was doing its utmost to establish peace along the Line of Control
(LoC), the de facto border diving Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

She moreover said that Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj
Aziz had left for Morocco where he would be participating in the meeting of the
Al Quds committee.

She added that Pakistan's
position on Palestine was clear, adding that at the meeting in Morocco,
Pakistan would speak in favour of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its
capital.

Aslam said Pakistan was
against Israel's continued construction of illegal settlements in occupied
territories and added that Jerusalem should be liberated from Israeli
occupation.

She said that the matter of
illegal Pakistanis being deported from Italy is being highlighted we do not
know how many Pakistanis have been affected. Illegal migrants are a big problem
for the world.

She said that a certain lobby
in the world is working for the elimination of capital punishment. Drug dealers
are playing with the lives of the people adding that we do not have statistics
on how many Pakistanis are involved in the drug trade.

In response to a another
question the spokesperson said that Pakistan does not want military solution to
Iran’s' nuclear problem the matter should be solved through dialogue.

The spokesperson said Pak-Iran
gas is our mutual issue there is no need for a new agreement. There is a
problem with funding due to which we the project is progressing at a slow pace.

She said US-Afghanistan have
bilateral relation . Afghanistan is an independent country and can decide for
itself. Soil of Afghanistan should not be used against Pakistan and neither we
would allow our land to be used against anyone.

NEW DELHI: The
1.1-million strong Army is still nowhere near fighting fit. The force may have
inked contracts worth Rs 11,777 crore this fiscal but none of its critical
modernization projects for howitzers, helicopters, anti-tank guided missiles
(ATGMs), assault rifles or even night-vision devices are anywhere near closure.

Yes, matters have
improved since March 2012 when the then Army chief General VK Singh complained
to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about "large-scale voids" in
critical weaponry and ammunition.

If 17 new
contracts worth Rs 2,820 crore were signed for the Army in 2011-2012, the
figure jumped to 29 contracts worth Rs 7,222 crore in 2012-2013. The tally
stands at 17 contracts worth Rs 11,777 crore in the ongoing fiscal.

Army chief General
Bikram Singh said another 23 contracts, worth around Rs 12,000 crore, were in
the pipeline. "We are hopeful they will be inked before March 31. It's an
upward trend, a healthy trend," he said.

That is certainly
the case. But most of the contracts inked this year are small-ticket ones,
ranging from gunnery simulators and helicopter missile-warning systems to
digital control harness and truck-mounted lifting devices.

The important ones
approved are few and far between. These include the over Rs 2,000 crore deal
for 15,000 3UBK Invar missiles for T-90S tanks and the Rs 1,200 crore one for
two additional "troops" of the Israeli Heron spy drones.

The really critical
projects are still stuck in the long-winded procurement process. Take the
infantry, the largest arm with 355 battalions. Its desperate requirements for
bullet-proof jackets, ballistic helmets, new-generation assault rifles with
interchangeable barrels, close-quarter battle carbines, light machine guns and
third-generation ATGMs have all been hanging fire for several years.

"The Army has
a very poor anti-tank capability on the western border with Pakistan. There is
a 50% deficiency in ATGMs. The infantry and mechanized infantry hold six types
of ATGM launchers of old vintage. Similarly, the case for 1,78,000 advanced
assault rifles (for around Rs 10,000 crore) is stuck," said a source.

The force has not
inducted a single modern 155mm howitzer since the infamous Bofors scandal of
the 1980s. Different artillery projects worth Rs 30,000 crore for 145
ultra-light howitzers, 100 self-propelled tracked guns, 814 mounted gun systems
and 1,580 towed guns, among others, are still to come through.

Army Aviation
Corps, which had chalked out big plans to induct attack helicopters and
fixed-wing aircraft in the future, is yet to get replacements even for its
ageing fleet of Cheetah and Chetak helicopters.

The long-delayed
Rs 3,000 crore project for acquiring 197 "reconnaissance and
surveillance" helicopters from abroad has gone into a tailspin, with the
CBI now probing the project as a fallout of the VVIP chopper case. Defence PSU
Hindustan Aeronautics is also running way behind schedule to develop 187
similar light utility helicopters.

Left alone to fend
for themselves facing the enemy at sub-zero temperatures in highly inhospitable
terrain, Indian troops deployed on the icy heights of Siachen and along the
Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir now stand threatened by already meagre and
shrinking budgets. Shocking as it may sound, the government had ordered a 57
percent cut in kerosene supplies for troops due to austerity measures. And
kerosene is not a luxury at those heights. It is used for cooking and running
the heaters to keep the men on the frontline from freezing.